The widely held belief was that on 18 May 1803 at Arachie Dessalines had torn the white band from the French tricolor, leaving a blue and red flag …

David Nicholls, From Dessalines to Duvalier: race, colour, and national independence in Haiti (1996)

It is true that at Arcahaie, in eight hundred and three when the May morning painted the sky red spreading its flaming heat over forest and town, Dessalines, as he bled, seized the dawn’s color and marrying its crimson to the blue of the sea gave us this flag that onto the staff was raised.